| The Centered Education | by Luxas for everyone |
The magic arts are a simplistic in the known area, and many years are needed before a spellcaster or seeker of their own magic even starts to master them. In order to make both teaching and learning easier, magic has been divided up into several areas, called Academia
All spell work may belong to a single school, though some spells or workings may work in near-identical form known to several schools under different names.
This chapter provides an overview on the concept as well as a description of the schools themselves.
Schools define how you do it what you may not understand even if you do it naturally. There are many ways bring forth the acts of magic and make it work, alone by yourself in itself does not say much about your magic. But whether you call upon the help of the gods to to give voice to your power, or summon demon or dragon to draw movement in the netherworlds, or with a bolt of pure energy connect or control things or heal - these things say only how you wish your magic to arrive or to grow into.
There are almost hundreds of identical schools of different arts by themselves called "Academy", but the ways to connect to them can be very challenging. There are no open schools that give a general advantage over other schools out there. The choice of schools one can advance in can be like a dice throw and many common arts are just mock roleplaying.
The world is not so simple that one either knows or knows nothing about a certain school. Instead, how much a seeker knows about a specific schooling of magic is graded in four levels of knowledge:
- Nothing
- Especially
young and lower-ranked seekers often know nothing at all about several
schools or their magical design, but many seek to become more self
seeking, specializing and deciding to rather learn more about their
chosen interest, and in return remain ignorant about one or more other
schools because of there cost or commitment.
- Basic Knowledge
- The
first level of training, basic knowledge provides all the details one
needs to use most workings from this schooling. It has not yet defined
the use or teaching details, which means a lot of channels/energy gets
unnecessarily overworked to achive the desired results, and every once
in a while some detail gets omitted due to laps of insight, leaving the
spellcaster/magicuser dying in mid-air.
- Advanced Training
- In-depth
study with a Teacher or Adviser and extensive training provided by the
additional refining maturity of the seeker that makes the arts easier to
handle and much more reliable and rewarding. This is the level though
is still only a general class education most basic/adept
spellcasters/magicusers aim for. With the exception of some very rare
and complicated working, and advancing training begins to open the whole
arsenal of Tomes "books of learning" the school or academies has to
offer.
- Mastery
- Not many people in magic ever reach mastery in any school or full academic study, and very few are allowed to teach it to hopefuls. This is mainly because mastery requires extensive dedication and lots of experience with a personal magic "Magiester". When the hardships pay off, however, magic becomes as easy as water is to a thristy person, almost naturally given. In addition, the long training turns you into a special energy tool that others of that magic level will feel and to you it becomes second nature to the spellcaster/magicuser, who has a much easier time handling the more intricate aspects of the arts seen or not, and can answer questions as if not trying..
The following is a list of the schools/academies as well as a short description of the kind of spells/workings most common to this schooling.
Basic School of Magic |
|---|
| This is a beginning school as it does not subscribe to any special philosophy or interpretation due to how it needs to find what works with its students, but instead has a fluid concept of basic magical powers/sygils and tomes based on personal lore that is easily adopted to whatever interpretation a council requires. It offers basic and often very generic workings, most of which are of no use in complete advancement more about discovery of the self. The school is broad in scope, but small in power, with most spells/workings being low-charged and more expensive in energy than comparable equivalents from more specialized schools. But its still a beginner school offers the same amount and diversity to choose from for their future. |
School of the Un-seen |
|---|
| The
School of Un-seen teaches the contact with higher powers and the
channeling of their energy. While usually used for healing and other
connection spellscasting and works, it also sports a good assortment of
"heavenly intervention". This school usually requires intensive acts of spiritual understanding and rituals based on them, whose specific nature depends on the religion involved or not.. - they can range from mental conjuration to blood tapping sacrifices. Yes, the Un-seen does include understanding dark gods and even some "higher sexual powers of self" that can only be described as Occult-like. Usually, the energy of the individual spellcaster/magic user restricts him to subscribing only to one side of the spectrum. Un-seen magic requires trust to use, and you can only truly believe in one thing at a time Yourself. |
School of the Path |
|---|
| The
energies of death and the undead are the area of this magus school.
Different from other schools, this directly affects the life energy of
its targets. A death student will not damage the body, just remove the
life from it or connect with its lifeforce as in memories of that
emotion... Death also deals with the undead, with skeletons, zombies, wraiths and other creatures of the nightsometimes even the Un-seen. At first glance, only evil users want to be spellcasters chosen to this school. On second thought, however to know the secrets of death is to teach you about what is missing in the power of life., it becomes clear that in intimate knowledge of death also helps to avoid it. While this is of little use during certain students of self destructive nature - there are real healing spells in this school but only with a high price... - it is good enough reason for many spellcasters to see the trueness of their mirrored soul, though not happy with the rest of the schools design it is worthy to engage in its study. The prime Mastery of the school of Path is that it affect things that either are (still) alive, or once were alive or shows you your secret natures..... |
School of the Temple |
|---|
| The
school of Temple is a very special education in that it deals with the
inner workings of magic's beginning first and foremost. While impressive
effects are possible with it, they usually lack the show that other
schools might provide. Temple is a school of mastery of the possible,
silence, and almost invisible effective guides simular to "Dragons". It is also a school that concentrates deeply on the magicuser/spellcaster's craft themselves, and thus provides more "internal" charge than "external" wall effects, most of them of use during ceremonial magic - such as telepathical communication. |
School of the Universe |
|---|
| The
forces of nature are the realm of this school in its beginnings. Trees
and rain, rivers and meadows - all fall within the school of the
Universe. Usually, the spellcasters/magic users in this school treat
nature as a companion and friend, but as everywhere there are also
power-driven individuals who are more concerned about learning new and
better ways to twist nature to their own devices which is taught to be
blocked here, balance has its own laws... The School of the Universe excells in it's environment-changing ability due to abit of spiritual coversion. No other school allows such quick and easy access to spells/workings that change the weather, turn a river into a dry canyon or let plants grow or wither. |
School of Dynamics |
|---|
| The
school of Dynamics for the "pure mage", this one does not burden itself
with any concepts of dubious nature. Instead, the spellcasters takes
magical energy - charge and tuning and shapes it into the desired form.
Simple, effective, and versatile. Quite extensive on the tuning side,
however. This school offers a broad array of powers/wisdoms, but is very slim and theoretical on the philosophic side due to coppycat mentalities. Almost more of a science than a magical art, Dynamics offers a broad array of spells/workings but does not grow power between various elements - the school only has efective charge like-based spells. |
School of Dragons |
|---|
| Another
school with a variety of interpretations applied to it. depending on
the energy you wish to study In all cases, this school draws upon
exterior, but not godly, forces. Contrary to the school of Un-seen,
spirits or demons are of a variety of powers interlaced with the center
energies that be, from the lowly, easily subdued, to ones many times
more powerful than the spellcaster/magicuser. The school comes in two basic flavors, Dragon Lore and Spirit/Demon Lore, in much the same way that Un-seen knows "good" and "evil" gods. While the lack of self energy-based spells is noticeable, an almost complete set of spells/workins/sygils is available to this school. From attack to defense, from healing to disturbing, they can invite anything to do everything they are asked to. |
School of Magiestery |
|---|
| This
very unique school and differs in all others, no council will ever be
offered. It is open only to formal training. Many spellcasters/magicuser
waits to join this school- among them ironically several other schools
branch or adapt in this school - because of the way of its process some
even refuse to recognize it as a school, and instead consider it to be
more of a framework for the knowledge that one already posesses by some
ancient puzzle. The School of Magiestery does not teach any own philosophy, but rather provides a kind of education and philosophical, religious or whatever-is-appropriate background to the well selected beforehand "student" that gives the student new insights into the views they already holds or want to see. While it does not teach any new long term knowledge, it certainly deepens that which is already there from other schoolings.... From what is known publicly, the School of Magiestery offers no spells of its own to any who aren't secure in their magic as a more then student. Instead, it has developed enhanced versions of many spells from other schools and Teachs from it. You can not learn the School of Magiestery until you have at least Advanced Training in at least three other schools! |
 | Druid design in the real... | by Luxas for everyone |
Greetings to all the seekers,
Being
a Wizard for over like 12 years now, i have encountered all forms of
magical design, symbolism and secrets in the area of spirituality,
Druid isn't what most modern druidic designs have made it out to be....
stuff like mock cultural debates with christian morning rituals and theories about dragonic magic...
It
is internal workings with the basic of tools and symbolism as derived
by the energy that one wished to gain wisdom in, and it was a design
that used nature to understand the world, not owned by just one
culture...it was however formed from the welsh of the time...and area...
The
Dragon is the energy and voice that comes from the heart of truthful
wisdom and it is an outer shell of the system refered to as magic...
They
are teachers to the mage and protectors to druid, a druids main design
is to know stuff not to be a mage they can do that but then they are
less druid in their path, They play in the corridor of time...
they have 8 rituals 5 of which are for remembering
past events, they use staffs to draw power from the earth, not have it given to them,
and they don't speak in language code or this silly galic design that was more the modern druid design created from the idea that druids started celtic..lol
past events, they use staffs to draw power from the earth, not have it given to them,
and they don't speak in language code or this silly galic design that was more the modern druid design created from the idea that druids started celtic..lol
the rest you learn from the rituals.....
Wisdom reveals all when the mind finds what it doesn't seek openly... merlin
Wisdom reveals all when the mind finds what it doesn't seek openly... merlin
Oh, and wizards aren't druid......lol
they help them though....older brother-ish..
they help them though....older brother-ish..
| If you seek me.... | by Luxas for everyone |
(Caster)...Thank you for emailing me,I had just about reached the
end of my rope all the email addys you have listed
come back to me with ' errors ' somehow. I an very
interested in learning from you. All other sites on
magic seem to be ' fluff' and not serious or they are
' wiccan ' which I am not. I have seen copies of
conversations you have had with people, where do these
occur? Is there a branch of your organization here on
the west coast? What if anything do you teach online?
I read somewhere mention of a ' course' you teach?
More information on that would be appreciated. I hope
I dont overwhelm you :-) Thanks
end of my rope all the email addys you have listed
come back to me with ' errors ' somehow. I an very
interested in learning from you. All other sites on
magic seem to be ' fluff' and not serious or they are
' wiccan ' which I am not. I have seen copies of
conversations you have had with people, where do these
occur? Is there a branch of your organization here on
the west coast? What if anything do you teach online?
I read somewhere mention of a ' course' you teach?
More information on that would be appreciated. I hope
I dont overwhelm you :-) Thanks
(Owner)...About you first, then i?
As
far as my groups and stuff they are on invite alone, as for the links
(you have conntacted me on about every website ani check my links from
time to time, you mean you want a personal conversation and i have them
only in my own time and with those i feel are as serious or want to be
as i am and was in the beginning...
Sorry...
| when gypsy witch meets shaman/mage | by Luxas for everyone |
Crowther, Patricia C.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
As a Witch and high priestess of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England,
Patricia Crowther has since the 1960s been a predominant spokesperson
for Witchcraft. She has authored several books as well as giving many
media and lecture appearances. She was nitiated into the Craft by
Gerald B.Gardner, being considered his spiritual heir, has worked
promoting the renaissance of the Old Religion in order to benefit and
enlighten humankind. She had formed flourishing covens throughout the
United Kingdom.
Born as Patricia Dawson in Sheffield, her great grandmother of
Brittany was a herbalist and a clairvoyant, who also told fortunes.
Her grandmother Elizabeth (Tizzy) Machon (her maiden name) was a very
small woman whose surname means "fairy."
The Dawson family lived next door to a palmis t, Madame Melba, who
predicted that Patricia would possess great clairvoyant powers. In
her childhood, she experienced synchronistic association with fairies
and the Craft: at a children's birthday party she was chosen to be
Fairy on the Moon, and she was whirled around seated on an
illuminated crescent moon (The Goddess with crescent moon is often
symbolic of Diana); as a birthday present she received a gold snake
bangle, the symbol of wisdom, life, and rebirth; she performed as
Robin Hood in pantomime, and performed in a revue entitled The Legend
of the Moon Goddess.
At 30, a hypnotist regressed Patricia to previous lives including one
as a Witch, Polly, an old crone of about 66 in the year 1670. Polly
revealed that she lived in a hut with a cat, frog, goat and hen, and
worked spells for people, most of whom she loathed. She openly
recited numerous spells, all of which rhymed, and gave instructions
for using th em. Patricia possessed no knowledge of the spells which
experts claimed to be authentic. However, the regression
substantiated she had been a Witch in a past life and, according to
Witch lore, she would become a Witch in this her present life. Since
that regression experience Patricia has recalled in numerous
clairvoyant visions, another past life in which she served as a
priestess of the Goddess of great power. She feels more affinity with
the spiritual priestess than with the spell-casting crone.
Her parents were able to train her in singing, dancing, and acting
for stage. Patricia toured all over the United Kingdom. When playing
at a theater at Birmingham in 1954, a fortune-teller predicted that
she would meet her future husband, a man named Arnold, two years
later over water. At the time the prediction seemed utterly
fantastic, but it was borne out. It was in 1956, when flying to a
summer engagement, which she ha d taken on the Isle of Wight, Patricia
met Arnold Crowther, a stage magician and ventriloquist who was to
perform in the same show as she. When Arnold discovered her interest
in Witchcraft he offered to introduce her to Gardner, a personal
friend. Thus, another prediction came true. Several years earlier,
Gardner had told Crowther that he would meet a fair-haired who would
initiate him into the Craft.
Following several meetings with Gardner, he initiated her into the
Craft on June 6, 1960. The initiation occurred in Gardner's private
Magic Room, the top floor of a barn, at his home in Castletown on the
Isle of Man. Patricia in turn initiated Arnold. Gardner presented
them with ritual tools and jewelry, including a coral necklace for
Patricia.
During the rite, Patricia had a profound and powerful trance
experience in which she envisioned herself as being reborn into the
priesthood of the Moon Mysteries, initiat ed by a line of howling,
naked women who passed her, gauntlet-style, through their spread
legs. Gardner postulated that she had gone back to another previous
life and relived an ancient initiation ceremony.
Their marriage occurred a few weeks later. On November 8, 1960,
Patricia and Arnold were married in a private handfasting ceremony of
which Gardner officiated. The ceremony took place in a circle, and
all participants were skyclad (nude). The couple were married in a
civil ceremony the next day, November 9. The press found out about it
in advance, and it was highly publicized. The Crowthers made their
home in Sheffield. They took their second-degree initiation on
October 11, 1961, and Patricia became high priestess on October 14.
The media eagerly sought after the Crowthers for interviews. When
asked by a reporter if she would like to meet people interested in
the Craft, Patricia answered yes. This inadvertentl y prompted the
reporter's news headline, "Witch Seeks Recruits for Coven," which
brought many inquiries. The Crowthers initiated the first member of
their coven in December, 1961, with others gradually following over
time.
Simultaneously they continued their instruction in the Craft with
Gardner. Also, an old woman named Jean, who lived in Inverness, saw
Patricia on television taught her a 300-year-old secret, inner
tradition. She told Patricia she considered her worthy to inherit
this knowledge which she imparted through a two year correspondence
course.
The Crowthers gave many interviews and speaking engagements always
promoting knowledge of the Craft. Together they authored two books,
The Witches Speak (1965, 1976) and The Secrets of Ancient Witchcraft
(1974). For Radio Sheffield they produced the first radio series in
Britain on Witchcraft, A Spell of Witchcraft, which debuted on
January 7, 1971. Also, they cast spells and exorcised ghosts for
people. They wrote seasonal rituals as well as new music and poetry
for the Craft.
Patricia's books include: Witchcraft in Yorkshire; Witch Blood, her
autobiography; The Witches Speak ( 1976); and Lid Off the Cauldron
(1981, 1985). Her articles have appeared in numerous periodicals
including Prediction, Gnostica, New Dimensions, and The Lamp of
Thoth. She appears on as a guest on radio and television shows
attempting to dispel misconceptions concerning the Old Religion and
modern Witchcraft. She has endeavored to bring back the Great Goddess
consciousness on a racial level, in order to promote a greater
harmony on spiritual levels of thought, and to further the equality
and prominence of women in general. In 1978, she represented Wicca in
the United Kingdom at an international conference in Barcelona.
Besides her Craft activities Patricia continues to perform
professiona lly as a singer, magician and puppeteer. A.G.H.
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/crowther_patricia_c.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
As a Witch and high priestess of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England,
Patricia Crowther has since the 1960s been a predominant spokesperson
for Witchcraft. She has authored several books as well as giving many
media and lecture appearances. She was nitiated into the Craft by
Gerald B.Gardner, being considered his spiritual heir, has worked
promoting the renaissance of the Old Religion in order to benefit and
enlighten humankind. She had formed flourishing covens throughout the
United Kingdom.
Born as Patricia Dawson in Sheffield, her great grandmother of
Brittany was a herbalist and a clairvoyant, who also told fortunes.
Her grandmother Elizabeth (Tizzy) Machon (her maiden name) was a very
small woman whose surname means "fairy."
The Dawson family lived next door to a palmis t, Madame Melba, who
predicted that Patricia would possess great clairvoyant powers. In
her childhood, she experienced synchronistic association with fairies
and the Craft: at a children's birthday party she was chosen to be
Fairy on the Moon, and she was whirled around seated on an
illuminated crescent moon (The Goddess with crescent moon is often
symbolic of Diana); as a birthday present she received a gold snake
bangle, the symbol of wisdom, life, and rebirth; she performed as
Robin Hood in pantomime, and performed in a revue entitled The Legend
of the Moon Goddess.
At 30, a hypnotist regressed Patricia to previous lives including one
as a Witch, Polly, an old crone of about 66 in the year 1670. Polly
revealed that she lived in a hut with a cat, frog, goat and hen, and
worked spells for people, most of whom she loathed. She openly
recited numerous spells, all of which rhymed, and gave instructions
for using th em. Patricia possessed no knowledge of the spells which
experts claimed to be authentic. However, the regression
substantiated she had been a Witch in a past life and, according to
Witch lore, she would become a Witch in this her present life. Since
that regression experience Patricia has recalled in numerous
clairvoyant visions, another past life in which she served as a
priestess of the Goddess of great power. She feels more affinity with
the spiritual priestess than with the spell-casting crone.
Her parents were able to train her in singing, dancing, and acting
for stage. Patricia toured all over the United Kingdom. When playing
at a theater at Birmingham in 1954, a fortune-teller predicted that
she would meet her future husband, a man named Arnold, two years
later over water. At the time the prediction seemed utterly
fantastic, but it was borne out. It was in 1956, when flying to a
summer engagement, which she ha d taken on the Isle of Wight, Patricia
met Arnold Crowther, a stage magician and ventriloquist who was to
perform in the same show as she. When Arnold discovered her interest
in Witchcraft he offered to introduce her to Gardner, a personal
friend. Thus, another prediction came true. Several years earlier,
Gardner had told Crowther that he would meet a fair-haired who would
initiate him into the Craft.
Following several meetings with Gardner, he initiated her into the
Craft on June 6, 1960. The initiation occurred in Gardner's private
Magic Room, the top floor of a barn, at his home in Castletown on the
Isle of Man. Patricia in turn initiated Arnold. Gardner presented
them with ritual tools and jewelry, including a coral necklace for
Patricia.
During the rite, Patricia had a profound and powerful trance
experience in which she envisioned herself as being reborn into the
priesthood of the Moon Mysteries, initiat ed by a line of howling,
naked women who passed her, gauntlet-style, through their spread
legs. Gardner postulated that she had gone back to another previous
life and relived an ancient initiation ceremony.
Their marriage occurred a few weeks later. On November 8, 1960,
Patricia and Arnold were married in a private handfasting ceremony of
which Gardner officiated. The ceremony took place in a circle, and
all participants were skyclad (nude). The couple were married in a
civil ceremony the next day, November 9. The press found out about it
in advance, and it was highly publicized. The Crowthers made their
home in Sheffield. They took their second-degree initiation on
October 11, 1961, and Patricia became high priestess on October 14.
The media eagerly sought after the Crowthers for interviews. When
asked by a reporter if she would like to meet people interested in
the Craft, Patricia answered yes. This inadvertentl y prompted the
reporter's news headline, "Witch Seeks Recruits for Coven," which
brought many inquiries. The Crowthers initiated the first member of
their coven in December, 1961, with others gradually following over
time.
Simultaneously they continued their instruction in the Craft with
Gardner. Also, an old woman named Jean, who lived in Inverness, saw
Patricia on television taught her a 300-year-old secret, inner
tradition. She told Patricia she considered her worthy to inherit
this knowledge which she imparted through a two year correspondence
course.
The Crowthers gave many interviews and speaking engagements always
promoting knowledge of the Craft. Together they authored two books,
The Witches Speak (1965, 1976) and The Secrets of Ancient Witchcraft
(1974). For Radio Sheffield they produced the first radio series in
Britain on Witchcraft, A Spell of Witchcraft, which debuted on
January 7, 1971. Also, they cast spells and exorcised ghosts for
people. They wrote seasonal rituals as well as new music and poetry
for the Craft.
Patricia's books include: Witchcraft in Yorkshire; Witch Blood, her
autobiography; The Witches Speak ( 1976); and Lid Off the Cauldron
(1981, 1985). Her articles have appeared in numerous periodicals
including Prediction, Gnostica, New Dimensions, and The Lamp of
Thoth. She appears on as a guest on radio and television shows
attempting to dispel misconceptions concerning the Old Religion and
modern Witchcraft. She has endeavored to bring back the Great Goddess
consciousness on a racial level, in order to promote a greater
harmony on spiritual levels of thought, and to further the equality
and prominence of women in general. In 1978, she represented Wicca in
the United Kingdom at an international conference in Barcelona.
Besides her Craft activities Patricia continues to perform
professiona lly as a singer, magician and puppeteer. A.G.H.
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/crowther_patricia_c.html
| whats in a name? | by Luxas for everyone |
if you rather do (k-mart) understandings and call it magic you can,
As
i know and taught for 9 years so far, a word defines a thing and it
sets the tone for understanding the methology and or working, if your
serious then you go by the orginal and more collected truths of a
pattern or design, or you can half ass it, as i know i would rather be
practicing then performing, because if you can addapt the value of a
thing as you wish then your not serious and doing no real value of
expanding wisdom, your playing like a painter in inks, only the ones who
had gifts or teachers of teachers perfected their art...
So when you use magik or majik or another spelling,
your saying all the past of magic means nothing to you...
(so you care not to have, you would rather look good at doing nothing) because thats what your doing....
And it does look cool, however you won't......
Just an Educated View....
| what wicca and so called witch books don't want you to know | by Luxas for everyone |
its
all mostly down to these people not being very well educated, "satan"
is a christian concept. " i am not a christian, ergo i cannot believe in
satan." morons! i consider myself to b a life worshiper, all life and
everything contained in and around it. i ask any christian who is
foolish enuff to argue thier case with me, if your god is all seeing,
all knowing,then y did he not foresee mans fall from grace? or did he?
fun was it?and what about sending his son 2 die on a cross? enjoyed that
did he? i feel nothing but contempt 4 the christian god. forgiving? HA!
my eye. satan suposedly got one over on him in the first few weeksso
what does he do? he cast the inferior beings out of paradise, and let
"the evil one" rule indefinately. oh merciful jehovah, hahahaha
sorry, christians make me mad. most of them have not studied thier holy book and if they did maybe some of them would realise that thier deity is not nice at all. certainly not an entity worthy of my worship.
blessed be
kirriea
sorry, christians make me mad. most of them have not studied thier holy book and if they did maybe some of them would realise that thier deity is not nice at all. certainly not an entity worthy of my worship.
blessed be
kirriea
Saddly
those that say blessed be are no better then the amen people or the go
with god people, its mainly a name calling thing, and if they knew each
others history or shared in either of their own, they wouldn't be so
quick to judge, in love and war all is fair, perhaps the same holds true
for hate and religion...
All i know is PLEASE grow up AND SEE WHAT CREATED YOUR UNDERSTANDING OR MISUNDERSTANDING...
All i know is PLEASE grow up AND SEE WHAT CREATED YOUR UNDERSTANDING OR MISUNDERSTANDING...
As For Duality, All religions and lore have dual natures...
some call satan dual others call god dual,
your both right and wrong, howver stupid people believe that satan is only a christian design, who spead that lie should burn at the stake,
Satan as in the other evil concept is in all religions and lore and it was only see as equal with the christian design so they added their own... India, China, Russia, germany, France, Sumerian, Ur, even in the Indian Cultures of the Inca and the sioux.....
So Stupid is as Stupid Does...
some call satan dual others call god dual,
your both right and wrong, howver stupid people believe that satan is only a christian design, who spead that lie should burn at the stake,
Satan as in the other evil concept is in all religions and lore and it was only see as equal with the christian design so they added their own... India, China, Russia, germany, France, Sumerian, Ur, even in the Indian Cultures of the Inca and the sioux.....
So Stupid is as Stupid Does...
hate only what you don't understand and find the way to
understand those who claim you are not....
if they don't make the change then it isn't the religion at stake its the person who preaches it...
understand those who claim you are not....
if they don't make the change then it isn't the religion at stake its the person who preaches it...
| Golden Dawns Seekers | by Luxas for everyone |
PFC's address to new Neophytes of the Alpha et Omega
Ave All,
I am now sure if the following has been shared with this list
or not so I hope I am not taking up unncessary bandwidth. I
think many of you will find it inspiring to say the least:
This speech was addressed to a new Neophyte class at the Golden
Dawn's Thoth-Hermes Temple No. 9 in New York City in Spring, 1920.
The assembled Neophytes had just been initiated into the Golden
Dawn's outer order, and been handed their copies of the Order's
'First Knowledge Lecture.' Paul Foster Case was addressing the
Neophyte class in his capacity of Praemonstrator of the Order's
American Branch.
Enjoy!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The wisdom of the R.O.A.O. [Rosicrucian Order of Alpha and Omega] is
taught in its knowledge lectures and rituals. The rituals are
treasure-chests; the lectures, keys that give access to the riches
concealed by their letter an symbolism. Without the keys you cannot
get at the treasure, no matter how much time you spend in studying
the rituals; and unless you are perfect in your knowledge lectures,
you cannot use the keys.
When you have memorized the text of a lecture, you have not reached
the necessary perfection. Not until you begin to understand what the
lecture really means, why it contains the particular subjects upon
which it treats, a how those subjects apply to the corresponding
ritual, do you even approach mastery of the knowledge in any grade.
You can commit the Neophyte lecture to memory in less than a day; but
I doubt if you can exhaust its meaning in a lifetime.
Very likely you will feel a sense of disappointment when you first
read it. You may feel like asking yourself, "Is THIS the secret of
wisdom I have sworn so solemnly never to reveal?"
You were probably more or less familiar with everything mentioned in
its five short sections, and you may be puzzled to account for the
insistence upon secrecy. Here is nothing that you cannot find in
Webster's Dictionary, except the names and numbers of the Hebrew
letters, ad the houses and exaltation of the planets. Evidently, if
there is a secret, it is not to be sought in the letter of the text.
I have heard the opinion expressed that these lectures are not
particularly important; but that opinion is a flat contradiction of
the statement made by our present Arch-Magus that even the slightest
details of our curriculum are significant. It has also been said that
we are obliged to keep these seemingly exoteric matters secret simply
as a kind of training, so that if we are faithful in little, as it
were, we may prove our right to be entrusted with much. There may be
a grain of truth in this, but I prefer to believe that no obligation
so binding as the one you have just taken would be imposed upon
members of the Order unlessthere were really something to conceal.
It seems to me that in nothing has the wisdom and ingenuity of our
Secret Fratres been more clearly displayed than in the composition of
our textbooks. Accident or treachery may at any time expose their
contents to the profane, but if every word should be published in the
newspapers tomorrow, the secret would not be betrayed.
You must be an initiate of this Order to understand the inner meaning
of its documents. Never forget that in entering its ranks you have
become links in a secret chain. You now partake of a thought-current
set in motion by our Secret Fratres, and its operation upon your
finer bodies puts you in direct contact with a source of knowledge
that is not open to the profane world. From my own experience I can
testify that although I was familiar with most of the knowledge given
in the first three grades of this Order long before my initiation, I
have, in the comparatively short time that I have been a member,
gained far more real understanding than I had been able to acquire
during years of outside study. But while the Secret Fratres are ever
ready to communicate the riches of their hidden wsdom to us, they
exact a price. They demand from each of us the most diligent effort
to penetrate behind the letter of our textbooks to the inner,
spiritual significance. They offer the most help to those who are
most eager to help themselves.
Every subject in our curriculum is important. Every step is to be
taken in proper order. Nothing can be slighted, nothing slurred over.
Even in this simple Neophyte lecture, if you study it as you should,
will enable you to gain a priceless store of Occult wisdom. Nor is
this all. The very method of study that you must adopt, if you really
want to know what this lecture means, will develop in you those
powers of the mind which are indispensable to success in practical
Occultism. To give you some hints as to this method is my present
aim.
Recall, for a moment, the terms of your preliminary pledge. Do you
remember that it said you must be prepared to take an interest in
Egyptian, Kabbalistic, and Christian symbolism? Note the phrase, "to
TAKE an interest." If this Order admitted nobody but those who were
already familiar with the Kabbalah, with the wisdom of the Egyptians,
and with the symbols of Christianity, its membership would be small
indeed. Every candidate who passes the portal of the Temple is
expected to TAKE an interest. Many must do so by main force at first;
but those who persist, and study in the right way, will soon find
themselves enjoying their work.
Did I say, "expected to take an interest?" I meant REQUIRED; and to
live up to the solemn letter and spirit of that requirement we are
pledged by our solemn obligation to devote ourselves to the serious
study of Occult Science.
To encourage you in living up to that obligation, the Hiereus has
reminded you of the power of perseverance. You do not have to be
mental giants to become practical Occultists. You simply have to do a
certain amount of work every day. As Johnson says, "Yonder palace was
raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He
that shall walk with vigour three hours a day, will pass in seven
years a space equal to the circumference of the globe."
If your progress is halting and uncertain at first, comfort
yourselves with the reflection that even the greatest adepts were
once in the very same position. It has been well said that there is
no royal road to anything. You will need often to remember this, for
unless you happen to possess a rather unusual type of mind, your
first steps along the path of Occult study will be not only
difficult, but deadly dull. To all appearances, these dry details you
must learn have no connection whatever with what you mean by
"spiritual development."
At the very outset a new alphabet confronts you-- the alphabet of
what is practically a dead language. Some of the letters are so much
alike that you can hardly tell the difference between them. Before
you can learn to write them you must reverse the habits of years. You
have to train your eye and hand to work from right to left, and your
first attempts are sure to be far from successful. Just because of
these difficulties, learning the Hebrew alphabet is one of the best
possible exercises to prepare you for success in practical Occultism.
By the time you can actually read Hebrew, and write it quickly and
accurately, you will have accomplished much in the education of your
will, by making both mind and body obey you in unaccustomed ways.
Furthermore, these twenty-two letters with their names and numbers,
are the very foundation of the Holy Kabbalah, or Secret Wisdom of
Israel, which is indispensable to the understanding of the principles
of Occult Science. This is not merely my personal opinion. The great
French magus, Eliphas Levi, who was an adept of this Order, says:
"Sacred science includes two things, the doctrine or word, and the
works which are the final form and fulfillment of the word. The
science of signs and their correspondences is the introduction to the
science of the doctrine. The Kabbalah is the science of signs and
their correspondences."
Now, if the Kabbalah be the introduction to Occult Science, the
Hebrew alphabet is the introduction to Kabbalah. Every letter has a
name, which represents a specific object. Each of these objects is a
symbol, and meditation upon that symbol will lead you to its hidden
meaning. Thus the sequence of ideas implied by the letter-names is
really an outline of the principal doctrines of the Kabbalah. It is a
real sequence, too, for the very order of the letters is based upon
the logical connection between the implicits of each letter and those
of the letters that immediately precede and follow it in the series.
ALEPH must be at the beginning, because its name suggests ideas that
are associated by every thinker with the inception of the creative
process. TAU must be at the end, because everything that its name
implies relates to completion.
To make sure that the order of the letters would not be changed, each
was given a numerical value. From ALEPH to TETH inclusive, they
represent the digits from 1 to 9. The tens begin with YOD and are
completed at 90 by TZADDI. The four remaining letters, QOPH, RESH,
SHIN, and TAU, are the numbers 100, 200, 300, and 400. Thus any
Hebrew word may also be represented by the total produced by adding
the values of its letters.
This fact is the foundation of what Kabbalists call GEMATRIA, and
GEMATRIA is the key to everything in the Kabbalah. The etymology of
this term is uncertain, although we know it comes from the Greek.
Some trace it to GRAMMA, "a letter," or to GRAMMATEUS, "a scribe."
Others derive it from GEOMETRIA, "geometry." I incline to accept
this, not only because GEMATRIA is a system wherein letters are
regarded as numbers, but also because its full application to the
mysteries of Occult symbolism depends upon the fact that certain
numbers are closely related to geometrical figures and solids.
In its full development, GEMATRIA takes years to master. You will
find little difficulty, however, with its simpler processes. As soon
as you have learned the values of the twenty-two letters you should
turn all the Hebrew words in your lecture and ritual into numbers.
Keep a special loose-leaf notebook for this, and use a seperate page
for all the words whose totals may be reduced to the same result. A
simple way to begin is to number twenty-two pages with the numbers of
the Hebrew letters. Later you will find it necessary to add pages for
certain mixed numbers, like 13, 25, 65, and so on, which have special
significance in the Kabbalah.
I just mentioned the reduction of numbers. This is a process much
employed in GEMATRIA. Sometimes it is called "contraction." Probably
I can make it clearer by illustration than in any other way. Suppose,
for example, that you wish to employ GEMATRIA to develop the meaning
of the divine name translated JEHOVAH in the English Bible. In Occult
literature it is usually called TETRAGRAMMATON, because it is spelt
with four letters: YOD-HE-VAU-HE. The sum of the values of these four
letters is 26. No single letter in Hebrew has this value; but if you
add together the two digits, 2 and 6, the result is 8, and this is
the value of the letter CHETH. This method of adding the digits in a
number is what is meant by contraction or reduction. By means of it,
any number, by repeated contractions, may be expressed as one of the
nine digits. This digit is termed, "the least number," and is
supposed to represent the essential meaning of the larger number from
which it has been derived.
When you have contracted the value of the TETRAGRAMMATON to 8, and
have thus identified the essential meaning of the name with the
letter CHETH, you have a most important clue to the secret
significance of the word JEHOVAH. The list of letter-names in your
lecture shows that CHETH means "enclosure." Here is the starting
point for your inquiry.
Ask yourself, "Why is the name of the Lord of the Universe to be
compared to the word 'enclosure?'" At this point you would do well to
consult your dictionary. Here you find that 'enclosure,' as a verb,
means the separation of land from common ground, or from the land of
others, by a fence or barrier. As a noun the same word designates
either that which is enclosed-- the field-- or that which encloses--
the barrier or fence. Consider these ideas a little while, and you
will see that they all imply limitation, or the setting of
boundaries. What has the idea of limitation to do with that Infinite
One whose Ineffable Name is the TETRAGRAMMATON? Simply this: The
process
by which the Lord of the Universe begins to manifest His creative
power is necessarily one of self-limitation. The Originating
Principle of the Universe is a power that selects a particular point
in space at which to begin, whenever it initiates a point of creative
activity. Since that Principle is infinite, it must fill all space,
or, in other words, what we call 'space' must be the limitless
expanse of the presence of God. At a particular point in that expanse
the Limitless Light concentrates itself, and from the center thus
established there follows an extension of power. Thus TETRAGRAMMATON
Himself may be regarded as the 'field' of his own operation; and His
Will-to-create may be thought of as the 'fence' or 'barrier' which
determines the boundaries of His self-manifestation.
Thus your little experiment on GEMATRIA has fixed your attention upon
a particular conception of the Universe. It has made you reproduce in
your own mind one the thought-process which long ago led the adepts
of the Kabbalah to formulate their "Doctrine of Concentrations,"
which may be briefly outlined as follows:
THE BEING OF GOD HIMSELF IS THE FIELD OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY, AND ANY
PARTICULAR PERIOD OF SUCH ACTIVITY BEGINS WITH AN ACT OF
SELF-LIMITATION ON THE PART OF THE CREATOR. God begins by
establishing boundaries. Hence, in the Oration before the Opening of
the Temple, we say: "Lord of the Visible World, who hast by Thy
supreme Power set limits to its magnitude, and hast given special
attributes to the bounds and terminations thereof..."
GEMATRIA also enables you to explain one Kabbalistic term by another.
For example, the name of the first Sephirah, KETHER, corresponds to
the number 620. The contraction of this number is also 8. This leads
you to seek for a correspondence between KETHER, the Crown, and
TETRAGRAMMATON, the Lord of the Universe. It is obvious, of course,
that the Crown is a symbol for the Ruler of all things. But there is
a deeper meaning, shown by the correspondence of KETHER to the letter
CHETH. A crown encircles the head of its wearer. When we speak of the
"head" of the Lord of the Universe, we mean the mental quality of the
Creative Principle. What encircles, encloses, or limits that mental
quality? What can limit the Infinite Mind? Clearly, nothing but its
own power of self-direction, its absolute will. Thus you arrive at
the very same conclusion that Kabbalists express in their doctrine,
that KETHER, the Crown, is the Primal Will that governs all
manifestations of the Limitless Light.
Farther down in your list of Sephiroth in the first lecture, you will
find YESOD, the Foundation. Add the numbers of its letters together
and you get 80. This can be explained two ways: First, by the letter
PE, which has 80 for its number; Second, by the letter CHETH, because
80 may be contracted to 8. Since we have been fixing our attention
particularly upon the implicits of CHETH, perhaps it will be better
to consider these first in connection with the meaning of YESOD. It
will not be necessary to go into details. You can see that whatever
begins the creative process must also be regarded as its foundation.
YESOD and KETHER are not two separate things; They are two aspects of
a single reality. The whole process is founded upon the Creative
Principle's initial act of self-limitation. This, I think, should be
clear to all of you, without further explanation. Let me, then,
direct your attention to what is implied by the correspondence
between YESOD and PE.
The list of letter-names says that PE means "mouth." In Hebrew, the
noun PE is particularly referred to the mouth of the organ of speech.
It is derived from a verb that means "to puff," that is, to
concentrate the breath. Now, in Hebrew, as in English, Latin, Greek,
and Sanskrit, the word that means "breath" also means "life" or
"creative energy." Thus the word PE, to every Hebrew, implies a
concentration of creative power in articulate speech. That this idea
should be associated with the Sephirah YESOD, or Foundation, should
not be surprising. When a Kabbalist says, "YESOD is the letter PE,"
he means, "The Foundation is the Mouth," that is, "The basis of all
manifestation is the utterance of the Creative Principle." This is no
other than the doctrine of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Christian
gospel: "In the beginning was the LOGOS, or Word."
I have elaborated these examples of GEMATRIA at the risk of wearying
you, that I might give you some idea of its importance to you in your
Occult studies. It is for you to apply similar methods to all the
Hebrew words in your lectures and rituals. To get the best results
you should keep a record of your work, and many of you may find it
convenient to keep a loose-leaf notebook for this purpose.
A handy size is 8-1/2" x 5-1/2", and books that open on the side are
preferable to those that open on the end. The books that I use cost
sixty cents, and extra fillers containing forty leaves are ten cents
apiece. My book is divided into twenty-two sections, one for each
Hebrew letter, indexed with Dennison's gummed index tabs. The first
page in each section is headed with a Hebrew letter, its
transliteration in the Roman alphabet, its number, and its Hebrew
spelling, numeration, and meaning of each letter-name. The Neophyte
lecture does not give the spelling of the letter-names, but they may
be found in Gesenius' "Hebrew Grammar," or in a Hebrew-English
dictionary. The advantage of such a notebook is its elasticity. Each
section can be added to as much as you please, and there is no danger
of overlapping. For some years I used a separate notebook of the
ordinary kind for each Hebrew letter, but since I have adopted this
plan, I find that one book is quite sufficient for all the material I
have gathered.
Much of this material consists of notes taken from various books,
among which I may mention, as particularly useful to the Occult
student, the "Jewish Encyclopaedia," Forlong's "Faiths of Man,"
Inman's "Ancient Faiths and Ancient Names," Strong's "Exhaustive
Concordance of the Bible" (which contains a dictionary of all of the
Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments), and the works
of Eliphas Levi. I should caution you that Forlong and Inman are
committed to the theory of the phallic origin of religion, which no
well-instructed Occultist can accept. At the same time, they are
valuable sources of information. As Madame Blavatsky once said, "They
err only in their interpretations; Nobody can dispute their facts."
In addition to these notes I have a mass of material which has
gradually accumulated as the result of a practice I began some time
since. I have found it most useful to take the Hebrew letter-names as
starting-points for my daily meditation. Perhaps some of you may find
this practice as valuable as I have, so I shall explain how to go
about it.
Suppose that tomorrow morning you begin to meditate upon the
letter-name ALEPH, the Ox. First of all you must call up as clear a
mental picture of an ox as you can summon before your mind's eye. Do
not simply think of the word, 'ox.' See a particular ox. See him
doing something-- pulling a cart, for instance. If you have any
difficulty in visualizing an ox, it may be because you don't know
just what one looks like. Take pains to find out.
When you can see the ox, turn your thoughts to what oxen mean in the
part of the world where the Hebrew alphabet was invented. Very likely
you will remember the old Mosaic law: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox
when he treadeth the corn." You know, too, that the primitive plows
used to this day in many Eastern countries are always pulled by oxen.
Thus you will see that because they are used from everything from
plowing to harvesting, oxen are, to the Oriental mind, inseparably
associated with agriculture. They represent the whole science and art
of tilling the soil, and of producing plants and animals useful to
man.
Now, agriculture is not only the foundation of all industry and
commerce, but it is also a type of man's whole endeavor to master his
environment. There is a deep significance in the alegory of Genesis,
which says that the Lord made Adam a gardener. All through the Bible
you will find the Great Work summarized by farming. The laws of the
universe are summarized in the laws of plant-growth, and behind the
various kinds of tree-worship there is a profound truth. In the
Kabbalah great emphasis is placed upon the Tree of Life, formed from
the ten Sephiroth. You need only glance through any good mythology to
learn how deeply the ancients venerated everything connected with
agriculture.
In Rome, in Greece and in Egypt, farming was a religious exercise. In
every pantheon, the oldest gods are those of the fields and of things
directly associated with farm life. Juno, or Hera, was originally a
cow-goddess, hence Homer called her "ox-eyed." Vesta, or Hestia, who
presided over the preparation of food, was daughter of Cronus, god of
harvests, and Rhea, who personified the reproductive power of the
earth. Minerva, or Athena, is represented with a distaff. Ceres, or
Demeter, presided over growing vegetation; and she and her daughter,
Persephone, were the central figures of the mysteries at Eleusis.
Diana, or Artemis, was goddess of the woods, lakes, and rivers.
Venus, or Aphrodite, was probably at first an Oriental goddess of
vegetation and the reproduction forces of nature. (Neophytes should
remember that to Aphrodite the rose is especially sacred.) Mars, or
Ares, is remembered as the ancient god of war, but he was primarily
revered as protector of the fields. Mercury, or Hermes-- or the
Egyptian Thoth, to whom this Temple is dedicated-- was a giver of
increase to herds, and the guardian of boundaries and roads, as well
as the patron of geometry, which had its beginnings in the surveying
of farmlands. Jupiter, or Zeus, the giver of rain, probably owed his
ruling position to this fact. We are accustomed to think of Neptune,
or Poseidon, as a sea-god, but he was also the god of horses. Vulcan,
or Hephaestus, god of the terrestrial fire, was the patron of two
arts related directly to agriculture-- the working of metals, and the
manufacture of pottery. Finally, Apollo, the Sun, was anciently
regarded as the fosterer of herds and flocks.
He corresponds therefore to the Egyptian Osiris, who was worshipped
under the form of Apis, the sacred bull. Like Ceres, who in some
respects corresponds to Isis, Osiris was a corn-spirit, personifying
the vegetative energy of growing grain. Thus he is closely related to
the Babylonian Tammuz, and legends of these two gods are very
similar. To Tammuz, also, bulls and oxen were sacred, as they were,
again, to the Persian Mithra, who was supposed to have captured and
slain the divine bull from whose body sprang all the plants and
animals beneficial to man. Osiris, Tammuz, and Mithra are only
different personifications of the life-power of the sun, embodied in
the forms of the vegetable kingdom, and thus becoming the foundation
of all human prosperity and progress. This power the Greeks
worshipped asa diety named Dionysis, Bacchus, or Iacchos. He was an
important figure in the Eleusinin mysteries, ad to him also the bull
was sacred.
All these ideas, and many other, will be suggested to you as you
meditate upon the meaning of the letter-name, ALEPH. Set them down in
your notebook, at the end of your period of meditation. Meditate on
one for six consecutive days, resting on the seventh. Each day,
before beginning to practice, read what you have already recorded,
and begin your meditation with the definite intention of discovering
something new. Nobody can exhaust the significance of any single
object in six days, and if your meditiation is barren of results that
is a sure sign that your determination is weak. EVERY PRACTICAL
OCCULTIST MUST MAKE HIS MIND OBEY HIM. This is difficult at first,
but daily practice will soon make it easy for you to hold your
attention to the task at hand, which is to forge a new link in a
chain of ideas, of which the first link is the name of a Hebrew
letter.
Thus, you see, the fifth section of your Neophyte lecture provides
for nearly six months of practice in visualization, concentration,
meditation, and the discovery of analogies. If it offered nothing
more, it is a basis for the training of will, memory, an imagination.
By this means alone you may go far toward "adopting and cultivating a
mental condition worthy of this Order."
Of especial importance is the clear visualization of each of the
twenty-two objects designated by the letter-names. This should take
into account the conditions of life in the Orient. Your mental
picture for BETH, "a house," must show the kind of house they built
in Palestine-- not a California bungalow, or a New York 'brownstone
front.' When you come to TETH, "the serpent," remember that our
wisdom comes from Egypt, and find out what snake the Egyptians
venerated, and to what dieties they referred it. Do this with every
letter. You will have to do considerable research-work to make your
mental pictures definite but the knowledge you will gain will repay
you a thousand-fold.
The Masters of Wisdom seldom teach anything that a pupil can find out
for himself. They give hints and clues in abundance, but we must take
the hints and follow the clues. In the preparation of our rituals and
lectures this rule has not been broken. What you get out of them
depends largely upon your willingness to work. If you have come into
this Order in the hope of finding pre-digested truth, you will be
disappointed. The secrets of nature are not to be explained in words
of one syllable. If you realize that such power and knowledge as this
Order has to give cannot possibly be offered to any but serious and
persevering students, who are ready and willing to go cheerfully
through more or less downright drudgery to attain their ends, you may
hope to find the Light of Truth.
That Light is not something that can be communicated to you. You will
never receive it, for you already possess it. In the heart of hearts
of every human being lies concealed the SUMMUM BONUM, Perfect Wisdom
and True Happiness. Our problem is to remove the veils of illusion.
Right meditation and right action enable us to do this, and right
action is the fruit of right meditation. Thousands of years of
experiment have enable the Masters of Wisdom who are the Secret
Fratres of the A.O. [Alpha and Omega] to determine what facts, what
forms of words, an what symbols are best adapted to lead the human
mind from the chaos of sense-illusion to the order of true spiritual
knowledge. These facts, and words, and symbols you will find in our
ectures and rituals; but you must work out their hidden meaning for
yourselves. Nobody can tell you. The Great Arcanum is said to be
indicible, not because there is any human prohibition against telling
it, but simply because there are no words to convey it. May you all
be led by the Spirit of Wisdom to the attainment of that supreme
realization, that "pure gold, clear as glass," which is the crown of
the Great Work to which the Lord of the Universe calls us, his little
children.
They have the books the alchemical legacy, heck even the length,
but they don't have the magic(k) they claim, saddly they are a good
mage order and so it the one that created them...but the Arch Magus
or his rivals leave much to be discovered in any form of true power
in wisdom, Solomon Said it Best "Teach me so i may know, so i may
see, so i may understand that you the string of the Instrument i am
to play can show me that i'm just the note in your music, those i
praise in thee and worship with my heart i know you don't wish this,
you just wish for me your Instrument of Wisdom to play well, and do
justice to your Song that is in Every Heart and beat of Living life"
When they get that then wisdom will be theirs....
they still just are notes, not the Instrument,
and they still are looking for the Songs that the Universe Sings
As a Wizard, I know the Scale....
Good Luck Wise Seekers.....
Ave All,
I am now sure if the following has been shared with this list
or not so I hope I am not taking up unncessary bandwidth. I
think many of you will find it inspiring to say the least:
This speech was addressed to a new Neophyte class at the Golden
Dawn's Thoth-Hermes Temple No. 9 in New York City in Spring, 1920.
The assembled Neophytes had just been initiated into the Golden
Dawn's outer order, and been handed their copies of the Order's
'First Knowledge Lecture.' Paul Foster Case was addressing the
Neophyte class in his capacity of Praemonstrator of the Order's
American Branch.
Enjoy!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The wisdom of the R.O.A.O. [Rosicrucian Order of Alpha and Omega] is
taught in its knowledge lectures and rituals. The rituals are
treasure-chests; the lectures, keys that give access to the riches
concealed by their letter an symbolism. Without the keys you cannot
get at the treasure, no matter how much time you spend in studying
the rituals; and unless you are perfect in your knowledge lectures,
you cannot use the keys.
When you have memorized the text of a lecture, you have not reached
the necessary perfection. Not until you begin to understand what the
lecture really means, why it contains the particular subjects upon
which it treats, a how those subjects apply to the corresponding
ritual, do you even approach mastery of the knowledge in any grade.
You can commit the Neophyte lecture to memory in less than a day; but
I doubt if you can exhaust its meaning in a lifetime.
Very likely you will feel a sense of disappointment when you first
read it. You may feel like asking yourself, "Is THIS the secret of
wisdom I have sworn so solemnly never to reveal?"
You were probably more or less familiar with everything mentioned in
its five short sections, and you may be puzzled to account for the
insistence upon secrecy. Here is nothing that you cannot find in
Webster's Dictionary, except the names and numbers of the Hebrew
letters, ad the houses and exaltation of the planets. Evidently, if
there is a secret, it is not to be sought in the letter of the text.
I have heard the opinion expressed that these lectures are not
particularly important; but that opinion is a flat contradiction of
the statement made by our present Arch-Magus that even the slightest
details of our curriculum are significant. It has also been said that
we are obliged to keep these seemingly exoteric matters secret simply
as a kind of training, so that if we are faithful in little, as it
were, we may prove our right to be entrusted with much. There may be
a grain of truth in this, but I prefer to believe that no obligation
so binding as the one you have just taken would be imposed upon
members of the Order unlessthere were really something to conceal.
It seems to me that in nothing has the wisdom and ingenuity of our
Secret Fratres been more clearly displayed than in the composition of
our textbooks. Accident or treachery may at any time expose their
contents to the profane, but if every word should be published in the
newspapers tomorrow, the secret would not be betrayed.
You must be an initiate of this Order to understand the inner meaning
of its documents. Never forget that in entering its ranks you have
become links in a secret chain. You now partake of a thought-current
set in motion by our Secret Fratres, and its operation upon your
finer bodies puts you in direct contact with a source of knowledge
that is not open to the profane world. From my own experience I can
testify that although I was familiar with most of the knowledge given
in the first three grades of this Order long before my initiation, I
have, in the comparatively short time that I have been a member,
gained far more real understanding than I had been able to acquire
during years of outside study. But while the Secret Fratres are ever
ready to communicate the riches of their hidden wsdom to us, they
exact a price. They demand from each of us the most diligent effort
to penetrate behind the letter of our textbooks to the inner,
spiritual significance. They offer the most help to those who are
most eager to help themselves.
Every subject in our curriculum is important. Every step is to be
taken in proper order. Nothing can be slighted, nothing slurred over.
Even in this simple Neophyte lecture, if you study it as you should,
will enable you to gain a priceless store of Occult wisdom. Nor is
this all. The very method of study that you must adopt, if you really
want to know what this lecture means, will develop in you those
powers of the mind which are indispensable to success in practical
Occultism. To give you some hints as to this method is my present
aim.
Recall, for a moment, the terms of your preliminary pledge. Do you
remember that it said you must be prepared to take an interest in
Egyptian, Kabbalistic, and Christian symbolism? Note the phrase, "to
TAKE an interest." If this Order admitted nobody but those who were
already familiar with the Kabbalah, with the wisdom of the Egyptians,
and with the symbols of Christianity, its membership would be small
indeed. Every candidate who passes the portal of the Temple is
expected to TAKE an interest. Many must do so by main force at first;
but those who persist, and study in the right way, will soon find
themselves enjoying their work.
Did I say, "expected to take an interest?" I meant REQUIRED; and to
live up to the solemn letter and spirit of that requirement we are
pledged by our solemn obligation to devote ourselves to the serious
study of Occult Science.
To encourage you in living up to that obligation, the Hiereus has
reminded you of the power of perseverance. You do not have to be
mental giants to become practical Occultists. You simply have to do a
certain amount of work every day. As Johnson says, "Yonder palace was
raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He
that shall walk with vigour three hours a day, will pass in seven
years a space equal to the circumference of the globe."
If your progress is halting and uncertain at first, comfort
yourselves with the reflection that even the greatest adepts were
once in the very same position. It has been well said that there is
no royal road to anything. You will need often to remember this, for
unless you happen to possess a rather unusual type of mind, your
first steps along the path of Occult study will be not only
difficult, but deadly dull. To all appearances, these dry details you
must learn have no connection whatever with what you mean by
"spiritual development."
At the very outset a new alphabet confronts you-- the alphabet of
what is practically a dead language. Some of the letters are so much
alike that you can hardly tell the difference between them. Before
you can learn to write them you must reverse the habits of years. You
have to train your eye and hand to work from right to left, and your
first attempts are sure to be far from successful. Just because of
these difficulties, learning the Hebrew alphabet is one of the best
possible exercises to prepare you for success in practical Occultism.
By the time you can actually read Hebrew, and write it quickly and
accurately, you will have accomplished much in the education of your
will, by making both mind and body obey you in unaccustomed ways.
Furthermore, these twenty-two letters with their names and numbers,
are the very foundation of the Holy Kabbalah, or Secret Wisdom of
Israel, which is indispensable to the understanding of the principles
of Occult Science. This is not merely my personal opinion. The great
French magus, Eliphas Levi, who was an adept of this Order, says:
"Sacred science includes two things, the doctrine or word, and the
works which are the final form and fulfillment of the word. The
science of signs and their correspondences is the introduction to the
science of the doctrine. The Kabbalah is the science of signs and
their correspondences."
Now, if the Kabbalah be the introduction to Occult Science, the
Hebrew alphabet is the introduction to Kabbalah. Every letter has a
name, which represents a specific object. Each of these objects is a
symbol, and meditation upon that symbol will lead you to its hidden
meaning. Thus the sequence of ideas implied by the letter-names is
really an outline of the principal doctrines of the Kabbalah. It is a
real sequence, too, for the very order of the letters is based upon
the logical connection between the implicits of each letter and those
of the letters that immediately precede and follow it in the series.
ALEPH must be at the beginning, because its name suggests ideas that
are associated by every thinker with the inception of the creative
process. TAU must be at the end, because everything that its name
implies relates to completion.
To make sure that the order of the letters would not be changed, each
was given a numerical value. From ALEPH to TETH inclusive, they
represent the digits from 1 to 9. The tens begin with YOD and are
completed at 90 by TZADDI. The four remaining letters, QOPH, RESH,
SHIN, and TAU, are the numbers 100, 200, 300, and 400. Thus any
Hebrew word may also be represented by the total produced by adding
the values of its letters.
This fact is the foundation of what Kabbalists call GEMATRIA, and
GEMATRIA is the key to everything in the Kabbalah. The etymology of
this term is uncertain, although we know it comes from the Greek.
Some trace it to GRAMMA, "a letter," or to GRAMMATEUS, "a scribe."
Others derive it from GEOMETRIA, "geometry." I incline to accept
this, not only because GEMATRIA is a system wherein letters are
regarded as numbers, but also because its full application to the
mysteries of Occult symbolism depends upon the fact that certain
numbers are closely related to geometrical figures and solids.
In its full development, GEMATRIA takes years to master. You will
find little difficulty, however, with its simpler processes. As soon
as you have learned the values of the twenty-two letters you should
turn all the Hebrew words in your lecture and ritual into numbers.
Keep a special loose-leaf notebook for this, and use a seperate page
for all the words whose totals may be reduced to the same result. A
simple way to begin is to number twenty-two pages with the numbers of
the Hebrew letters. Later you will find it necessary to add pages for
certain mixed numbers, like 13, 25, 65, and so on, which have special
significance in the Kabbalah.
I just mentioned the reduction of numbers. This is a process much
employed in GEMATRIA. Sometimes it is called "contraction." Probably
I can make it clearer by illustration than in any other way. Suppose,
for example, that you wish to employ GEMATRIA to develop the meaning
of the divine name translated JEHOVAH in the English Bible. In Occult
literature it is usually called TETRAGRAMMATON, because it is spelt
with four letters: YOD-HE-VAU-HE. The sum of the values of these four
letters is 26. No single letter in Hebrew has this value; but if you
add together the two digits, 2 and 6, the result is 8, and this is
the value of the letter CHETH. This method of adding the digits in a
number is what is meant by contraction or reduction. By means of it,
any number, by repeated contractions, may be expressed as one of the
nine digits. This digit is termed, "the least number," and is
supposed to represent the essential meaning of the larger number from
which it has been derived.
When you have contracted the value of the TETRAGRAMMATON to 8, and
have thus identified the essential meaning of the name with the
letter CHETH, you have a most important clue to the secret
significance of the word JEHOVAH. The list of letter-names in your
lecture shows that CHETH means "enclosure." Here is the starting
point for your inquiry.
Ask yourself, "Why is the name of the Lord of the Universe to be
compared to the word 'enclosure?'" At this point you would do well to
consult your dictionary. Here you find that 'enclosure,' as a verb,
means the separation of land from common ground, or from the land of
others, by a fence or barrier. As a noun the same word designates
either that which is enclosed-- the field-- or that which encloses--
the barrier or fence. Consider these ideas a little while, and you
will see that they all imply limitation, or the setting of
boundaries. What has the idea of limitation to do with that Infinite
One whose Ineffable Name is the TETRAGRAMMATON? Simply this: The
process
by which the Lord of the Universe begins to manifest His creative
power is necessarily one of self-limitation. The Originating
Principle of the Universe is a power that selects a particular point
in space at which to begin, whenever it initiates a point of creative
activity. Since that Principle is infinite, it must fill all space,
or, in other words, what we call 'space' must be the limitless
expanse of the presence of God. At a particular point in that expanse
the Limitless Light concentrates itself, and from the center thus
established there follows an extension of power. Thus TETRAGRAMMATON
Himself may be regarded as the 'field' of his own operation; and His
Will-to-create may be thought of as the 'fence' or 'barrier' which
determines the boundaries of His self-manifestation.
Thus your little experiment on GEMATRIA has fixed your attention upon
a particular conception of the Universe. It has made you reproduce in
your own mind one the thought-process which long ago led the adepts
of the Kabbalah to formulate their "Doctrine of Concentrations,"
which may be briefly outlined as follows:
THE BEING OF GOD HIMSELF IS THE FIELD OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY, AND ANY
PARTICULAR PERIOD OF SUCH ACTIVITY BEGINS WITH AN ACT OF
SELF-LIMITATION ON THE PART OF THE CREATOR. God begins by
establishing boundaries. Hence, in the Oration before the Opening of
the Temple, we say: "Lord of the Visible World, who hast by Thy
supreme Power set limits to its magnitude, and hast given special
attributes to the bounds and terminations thereof..."
GEMATRIA also enables you to explain one Kabbalistic term by another.
For example, the name of the first Sephirah, KETHER, corresponds to
the number 620. The contraction of this number is also 8. This leads
you to seek for a correspondence between KETHER, the Crown, and
TETRAGRAMMATON, the Lord of the Universe. It is obvious, of course,
that the Crown is a symbol for the Ruler of all things. But there is
a deeper meaning, shown by the correspondence of KETHER to the letter
CHETH. A crown encircles the head of its wearer. When we speak of the
"head" of the Lord of the Universe, we mean the mental quality of the
Creative Principle. What encircles, encloses, or limits that mental
quality? What can limit the Infinite Mind? Clearly, nothing but its
own power of self-direction, its absolute will. Thus you arrive at
the very same conclusion that Kabbalists express in their doctrine,
that KETHER, the Crown, is the Primal Will that governs all
manifestations of the Limitless Light.
Farther down in your list of Sephiroth in the first lecture, you will
find YESOD, the Foundation. Add the numbers of its letters together
and you get 80. This can be explained two ways: First, by the letter
PE, which has 80 for its number; Second, by the letter CHETH, because
80 may be contracted to 8. Since we have been fixing our attention
particularly upon the implicits of CHETH, perhaps it will be better
to consider these first in connection with the meaning of YESOD. It
will not be necessary to go into details. You can see that whatever
begins the creative process must also be regarded as its foundation.
YESOD and KETHER are not two separate things; They are two aspects of
a single reality. The whole process is founded upon the Creative
Principle's initial act of self-limitation. This, I think, should be
clear to all of you, without further explanation. Let me, then,
direct your attention to what is implied by the correspondence
between YESOD and PE.
The list of letter-names says that PE means "mouth." In Hebrew, the
noun PE is particularly referred to the mouth of the organ of speech.
It is derived from a verb that means "to puff," that is, to
concentrate the breath. Now, in Hebrew, as in English, Latin, Greek,
and Sanskrit, the word that means "breath" also means "life" or
"creative energy." Thus the word PE, to every Hebrew, implies a
concentration of creative power in articulate speech. That this idea
should be associated with the Sephirah YESOD, or Foundation, should
not be surprising. When a Kabbalist says, "YESOD is the letter PE,"
he means, "The Foundation is the Mouth," that is, "The basis of all
manifestation is the utterance of the Creative Principle." This is no
other than the doctrine of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Christian
gospel: "In the beginning was the LOGOS, or Word."
I have elaborated these examples of GEMATRIA at the risk of wearying
you, that I might give you some idea of its importance to you in your
Occult studies. It is for you to apply similar methods to all the
Hebrew words in your lectures and rituals. To get the best results
you should keep a record of your work, and many of you may find it
convenient to keep a loose-leaf notebook for this purpose.
A handy size is 8-1/2" x 5-1/2", and books that open on the side are
preferable to those that open on the end. The books that I use cost
sixty cents, and extra fillers containing forty leaves are ten cents
apiece. My book is divided into twenty-two sections, one for each
Hebrew letter, indexed with Dennison's gummed index tabs. The first
page in each section is headed with a Hebrew letter, its
transliteration in the Roman alphabet, its number, and its Hebrew
spelling, numeration, and meaning of each letter-name. The Neophyte
lecture does not give the spelling of the letter-names, but they may
be found in Gesenius' "Hebrew Grammar," or in a Hebrew-English
dictionary. The advantage of such a notebook is its elasticity. Each
section can be added to as much as you please, and there is no danger
of overlapping. For some years I used a separate notebook of the
ordinary kind for each Hebrew letter, but since I have adopted this
plan, I find that one book is quite sufficient for all the material I
have gathered.
Much of this material consists of notes taken from various books,
among which I may mention, as particularly useful to the Occult
student, the "Jewish Encyclopaedia," Forlong's "Faiths of Man,"
Inman's "Ancient Faiths and Ancient Names," Strong's "Exhaustive
Concordance of the Bible" (which contains a dictionary of all of the
Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments), and the works
of Eliphas Levi. I should caution you that Forlong and Inman are
committed to the theory of the phallic origin of religion, which no
well-instructed Occultist can accept. At the same time, they are
valuable sources of information. As Madame Blavatsky once said, "They
err only in their interpretations; Nobody can dispute their facts."
In addition to these notes I have a mass of material which has
gradually accumulated as the result of a practice I began some time
since. I have found it most useful to take the Hebrew letter-names as
starting-points for my daily meditation. Perhaps some of you may find
this practice as valuable as I have, so I shall explain how to go
about it.
Suppose that tomorrow morning you begin to meditate upon the
letter-name ALEPH, the Ox. First of all you must call up as clear a
mental picture of an ox as you can summon before your mind's eye. Do
not simply think of the word, 'ox.' See a particular ox. See him
doing something-- pulling a cart, for instance. If you have any
difficulty in visualizing an ox, it may be because you don't know
just what one looks like. Take pains to find out.
When you can see the ox, turn your thoughts to what oxen mean in the
part of the world where the Hebrew alphabet was invented. Very likely
you will remember the old Mosaic law: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox
when he treadeth the corn." You know, too, that the primitive plows
used to this day in many Eastern countries are always pulled by oxen.
Thus you will see that because they are used from everything from
plowing to harvesting, oxen are, to the Oriental mind, inseparably
associated with agriculture. They represent the whole science and art
of tilling the soil, and of producing plants and animals useful to
man.
Now, agriculture is not only the foundation of all industry and
commerce, but it is also a type of man's whole endeavor to master his
environment. There is a deep significance in the alegory of Genesis,
which says that the Lord made Adam a gardener. All through the Bible
you will find the Great Work summarized by farming. The laws of the
universe are summarized in the laws of plant-growth, and behind the
various kinds of tree-worship there is a profound truth. In the
Kabbalah great emphasis is placed upon the Tree of Life, formed from
the ten Sephiroth. You need only glance through any good mythology to
learn how deeply the ancients venerated everything connected with
agriculture.
In Rome, in Greece and in Egypt, farming was a religious exercise. In
every pantheon, the oldest gods are those of the fields and of things
directly associated with farm life. Juno, or Hera, was originally a
cow-goddess, hence Homer called her "ox-eyed." Vesta, or Hestia, who
presided over the preparation of food, was daughter of Cronus, god of
harvests, and Rhea, who personified the reproductive power of the
earth. Minerva, or Athena, is represented with a distaff. Ceres, or
Demeter, presided over growing vegetation; and she and her daughter,
Persephone, were the central figures of the mysteries at Eleusis.
Diana, or Artemis, was goddess of the woods, lakes, and rivers.
Venus, or Aphrodite, was probably at first an Oriental goddess of
vegetation and the reproduction forces of nature. (Neophytes should
remember that to Aphrodite the rose is especially sacred.) Mars, or
Ares, is remembered as the ancient god of war, but he was primarily
revered as protector of the fields. Mercury, or Hermes-- or the
Egyptian Thoth, to whom this Temple is dedicated-- was a giver of
increase to herds, and the guardian of boundaries and roads, as well
as the patron of geometry, which had its beginnings in the surveying
of farmlands. Jupiter, or Zeus, the giver of rain, probably owed his
ruling position to this fact. We are accustomed to think of Neptune,
or Poseidon, as a sea-god, but he was also the god of horses. Vulcan,
or Hephaestus, god of the terrestrial fire, was the patron of two
arts related directly to agriculture-- the working of metals, and the
manufacture of pottery. Finally, Apollo, the Sun, was anciently
regarded as the fosterer of herds and flocks.
He corresponds therefore to the Egyptian Osiris, who was worshipped
under the form of Apis, the sacred bull. Like Ceres, who in some
respects corresponds to Isis, Osiris was a corn-spirit, personifying
the vegetative energy of growing grain. Thus he is closely related to
the Babylonian Tammuz, and legends of these two gods are very
similar. To Tammuz, also, bulls and oxen were sacred, as they were,
again, to the Persian Mithra, who was supposed to have captured and
slain the divine bull from whose body sprang all the plants and
animals beneficial to man. Osiris, Tammuz, and Mithra are only
different personifications of the life-power of the sun, embodied in
the forms of the vegetable kingdom, and thus becoming the foundation
of all human prosperity and progress. This power the Greeks
worshipped asa diety named Dionysis, Bacchus, or Iacchos. He was an
important figure in the Eleusinin mysteries, ad to him also the bull
was sacred.
All these ideas, and many other, will be suggested to you as you
meditate upon the meaning of the letter-name, ALEPH. Set them down in
your notebook, at the end of your period of meditation. Meditate on
one for six consecutive days, resting on the seventh. Each day,
before beginning to practice, read what you have already recorded,
and begin your meditation with the definite intention of discovering
something new. Nobody can exhaust the significance of any single
object in six days, and if your meditiation is barren of results that
is a sure sign that your determination is weak. EVERY PRACTICAL
OCCULTIST MUST MAKE HIS MIND OBEY HIM. This is difficult at first,
but daily practice will soon make it easy for you to hold your
attention to the task at hand, which is to forge a new link in a
chain of ideas, of which the first link is the name of a Hebrew
letter.
Thus, you see, the fifth section of your Neophyte lecture provides
for nearly six months of practice in visualization, concentration,
meditation, and the discovery of analogies. If it offered nothing
more, it is a basis for the training of will, memory, an imagination.
By this means alone you may go far toward "adopting and cultivating a
mental condition worthy of this Order."
Of especial importance is the clear visualization of each of the
twenty-two objects designated by the letter-names. This should take
into account the conditions of life in the Orient. Your mental
picture for BETH, "a house," must show the kind of house they built
in Palestine-- not a California bungalow, or a New York 'brownstone
front.' When you come to TETH, "the serpent," remember that our
wisdom comes from Egypt, and find out what snake the Egyptians
venerated, and to what dieties they referred it. Do this with every
letter. You will have to do considerable research-work to make your
mental pictures definite but the knowledge you will gain will repay
you a thousand-fold.
The Masters of Wisdom seldom teach anything that a pupil can find out
for himself. They give hints and clues in abundance, but we must take
the hints and follow the clues. In the preparation of our rituals and
lectures this rule has not been broken. What you get out of them
depends largely upon your willingness to work. If you have come into
this Order in the hope of finding pre-digested truth, you will be
disappointed. The secrets of nature are not to be explained in words
of one syllable. If you realize that such power and knowledge as this
Order has to give cannot possibly be offered to any but serious and
persevering students, who are ready and willing to go cheerfully
through more or less downright drudgery to attain their ends, you may
hope to find the Light of Truth.
That Light is not something that can be communicated to you. You will
never receive it, for you already possess it. In the heart of hearts
of every human being lies concealed the SUMMUM BONUM, Perfect Wisdom
and True Happiness. Our problem is to remove the veils of illusion.
Right meditation and right action enable us to do this, and right
action is the fruit of right meditation. Thousands of years of
experiment have enable the Masters of Wisdom who are the Secret
Fratres of the A.O. [Alpha and Omega] to determine what facts, what
forms of words, an what symbols are best adapted to lead the human
mind from the chaos of sense-illusion to the order of true spiritual
knowledge. These facts, and words, and symbols you will find in our
ectures and rituals; but you must work out their hidden meaning for
yourselves. Nobody can tell you. The Great Arcanum is said to be
indicible, not because there is any human prohibition against telling
it, but simply because there are no words to convey it. May you all
be led by the Spirit of Wisdom to the attainment of that supreme
realization, that "pure gold, clear as glass," which is the crown of
the Great Work to which the Lord of the Universe calls us, his little
children.
They have the books the alchemical legacy, heck even the length,
but they don't have the magic(k) they claim, saddly they are a good
mage order and so it the one that created them...but the Arch Magus
or his rivals leave much to be discovered in any form of true power
in wisdom, Solomon Said it Best "Teach me so i may know, so i may
see, so i may understand that you the string of the Instrument i am
to play can show me that i'm just the note in your music, those i
praise in thee and worship with my heart i know you don't wish this,
you just wish for me your Instrument of Wisdom to play well, and do
justice to your Song that is in Every Heart and beat of Living life"
When they get that then wisdom will be theirs....
they still just are notes, not the Instrument,
and they still are looking for the Songs that the Universe Sings
As a Wizard, I know the Scale....
Good Luck Wise Seekers.....
| If your into the deep study | by Luxas for everyone |
in my links section is my record vault...
"password is available opon request"
See you in the Mage Quarters...
Owner
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